If you want to see Batman in a giant robot suit punching through a 200 foot tall Clayface’s head, then Batman: Gotham After Midnight is the book for you.  And, let’s face it, if you don’t want to see that then you, kind sir or madam, hate fun.  The unabashed horror and science fiction B-movie goodness in Batman: Gotham After Midnight is absolutely, positively the perfect counter-programming to the cognitive and oft times (as of late) confusing Batman: RIP.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying RIP as well, but writer Steve Niles and artist Kelley Jones have created a really great “turn your brain off and enjoy it” comic that delivers a lot of bang for your buck…your buck is $2.99 though…I should mention that…unless you’re in Canada in which case your buck is a little more…I need to stop using ellipses.
    Summing up the contents of my review for the previous issue, I proposed that this title is the B-movie of Batman titles and I hold to that position.  This Batman is probably not for everyone though, as it takes a darkly humorous and melodramatic take on Gotham’s favorite masked vigilante.  Some people may take offense to this version of the character.  A version which, if it had it’s own action figure, would surely be dubbed Attention Deficit Disorder Batman.  This is a Batman who strikes a new and altogether bombastic pose almost every forty seconds, even while having a normal conversation.  The book is self-reflexive in the same way that the Adam West TV show was, and that’s not going to please some people.  It is to these people that I say:
    “Please remove the stick from your ass so you can walk like a normal human being again.  That waddling shit pisses everybody off.  Also take it out so you can enjoy this book.”
    I kid!  I kid!  Don’t throw me to the lions just yet.  Unless the lions are sick, and they vomit candy.
In this fourth in a series of twelve issues, we’re treated to an incredibly fun boxing match between Batman; piloting his gigantic, serpentine-like robot, and a 200 foot tall Clayface.  This was a really, really fun fight.  About the only thing that could have elicited more squeals of boyish glee from this reader would be if Godzilla showed up midway through the skirmish all gaijin style wielding two rocket launchers and sporting an army helmet with the words, “I beat the shit outta’ Mothra…what chu’ got?!”  Scrawled on it in drippy white paint.  This fight was stupid awesome!
    We’re also witness to another “de-hearting” via another crazy “de-hearting” device by the Lon Chaney London After Midnight inspired Midnight, the new villain that Niles has created for this twelve issue series.  Kelley Jones’ art in this book perfectly suits the tone of the story; his compositions and poses are dynamic and very atmospheric.  His color palette consisting of rich reds and sickly greens, and dark black and blues give the book a wonderful tone.  No healthy looking blue skies here, Gotham is made of  run down tenement buildings and black skyscrapers jutting like jagged teeth into fields of red.
    The art is great and the story is good fun.  I’m really enjoying this series.  Perhaps I’m biased because of my penchant for B-Horror movies and I love seeing that kind of tone used with Batman.  The book is by no means perfect, in fact it’s far from it.  Each of the issues has it’s own problems.  In this particular issue, all the individuals absorbed by Clayface had to do was relax to be released from his fecal-matter-looking body, so Batman sprayed some kind of sleeping gas at Clayface so he would breath it in and thus free all the people inside him.  I wasn’t particularly fond of that fight resolution.  It seemed as if Niles got stuck for a long time on how to end the bout and then finally said:
    “Sleeping gas…sure…whatever.”
    Thank god we invented the, uh, whatever device.  Gee thanks Rob Lowe.  I’m sure it wasn’t really like that at all, Niles is clearly a very talented writer and I don’t mean to take a pot shot at him, but it just seemed like a really easy way out.
    All that said, I couldn’t say enough about how much fun I think this book is turning out to be.  I think each issue is getting better and better.  Personally I’m enjoying RIP as well, but for some of you who aren’t enjoying that book and just want to read some fun, out of continuity Batman I would highly recommend this title.  Not nearly enough people are pulling it.  And you know what they say about people who don’t pull stuff…their hands are usually empty…ah crap…that made about as much sense as Superman Beyond #1…and I’m writing those damn ellipses again!